At the podium, Dr. Virginia Stokes, a board certified OBGYN, said she’s treated many conditions that required abortion to prevent sepsis and preserve a patient's fertility. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd).

FRANKFORT — Saying that abortion bans handicap their ability to provide comprehensive care, nearly 300 Kentucky health care providers and medical students have signed a letter asking lawmakers to restore abortion access in the state.?

While unveiling the letter Wednesday, Louisville’s Dr. Marjorie Fitzgerald said abortion bans in Kentucky cause “devastating consequences” for patients.?

“We are losing obstetricians who will not practice in our state,” said Fitzgerald. And because of the restrictions, she said, “Doctors are violating their Hippocratic oath to do no harm.”??

Fitzgerald was joined in the Capitol Annex by Democratic lawmakers, other medical providers and a second-year medical student in Frankfort Wednesday to discuss the letter, written by the Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom and signed by 280 providers.?

They detailed the complex nature of medical decisions that lead to abortions and slammed lawmakers for restricting their ability to provide that care.?

Dr. Nancy Newman, a board certified obstetrician, said the “sanctity of the patient-doctor relationship has been violated” by abortion bans.?

“As a practicing OBGYN in this state for over 30 years, I’ve provided health care for women and that has been my goal and my dream,” Newman said. “Would I come to this state now? No, I would not.”?

That’s because, she said, there is a “culture of fear that our legislature has created” in which providers have to decide between jail time and what their patients need.?

“How do you practice medicine in a culture of fear?” Newman asked. “I don’t think you can.”?

Dr. Michelle Elisburg, a pediatrician in Louisville, told the story of a 14-year-old patient who was raped by a 60-year-old landlord and got pregnant.

“She had the baby and then dropped out of high school to get a job to support (them),” she said. “Now both mother and child have multiple risk factors for poor health, educational and vocational outcomes, requiring more financial assistance from the state.”??

Elisburg said as a Jewish physician she’s governed not only by the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, but also a faith-based oath to act in the best interest of her patients.?

“As a physician in Kentucky, I am now being forced to make impossible choices that put my professional ethics and my faith in direct conflict with the law,” said Elisburg.?

Urooj Nasim, who attends the University of Louisville Medical School but spoke only on behalf of herself, said abortion bans may keep her and her classmates from getting the hands-on training they need to become OBGYNs and tackle Kentucky’s high rates of maternal mortality.?

“In order to make the best calls for the patients of my future, I need to receive high quality training and all of the tools and procedures available,” Nasim said. “And in a state where physicians live in fear of being prosecuted for delivering standard care, that is just not possible.”?

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has said that “in states with abortion bans, medical students and residents are not able to receive the hands-on training they need in order to provide patients with comprehensive care.”?

Nasim, who was born in Saint Louis and lived in Somerset until she was 8, later told the Lantern she is “undecided” on her specialty path but was “moved by that patient population” when she worked with an obstetrician previously.?

“I’m a very … mission driven medical student,” she said. “I really want to help patients with a lot of the social factors that affect their health. And OB is a really great specialty to do that in.”?

Physician Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, and Rep. Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, also spoke alongside the health care providers.?

Latest in a line of protests?

The Thursday letter is the latest in a long line of efforts to protest Kentucky’s tight abortion bans.?

In 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established abortion as a constitutional right. Immediately, Kentucky law updated to all but ban abortion entirely, except in rare and life-threatening situations.?

Several lawmakers and organizations have attempted to change this. Both Republicans and Democrats have filed bills seeking to loosen or undo Kentucky’s abortion bans, to no avail.?

In 2022, Kentucky voters defeated the anti-abortion Amendment 2, which would have specified there’s no right to an abortion in Kentucky’s Constitution.?

In late 2023, a Kentucky woman sued for the right to access abortion and end an unwanted pregnancy, but dropped the lawsuit when the fetus lost cardiac activity.?

Several anti-abortion lawmakers have focused their efforts during the 2024 session on making Kentucky a safer place to give birth and codifying support for expectant parents.?

‘Outside the scope of treatment’?

This week a Republican lawmaker filed a bill seeking rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion bans — with a 6-week cutoff.?

Newman, an obstetrician, said that time frame is “not reasonable” and “outside the scope of treatment.”?

“Most women don’t even know that they’re pregnant by six weeks,” she said. In the case of assault, she said, “the victim likely may not even tell anyone before six weeks.”?

Dr. Virginia Stokes, a board certified OBGYN, said she’s treated many conditions in her tenure as a physician that required abortion — placenta previa,? first and second trimester ectopic pregnancies, preterm rupture of membranes, cancer, sepsis and more.?

A lack of early interventions, she said, can cause “total body sepsis and death due to the sepsis. And if death is avoided, there is a frequent loss of fertility due to disruption of the uterus.”?

“The fetus will not survive if the mother doesn’t survive,” Stokes said.?

In such cases she’s treated, she said, these are “gut wrenching decisions with no choice to be made” involving “very much wanted and cherished pregnancies.”?

“There are lots of really bad things that can happen between six and 12 weeks,” Stokes added. “and we need to have permission to take care of those patients.”?

“I am pro life,” Stokes said. “I am for saving the life of these women who have these early pregnancy complications that require, unfortunately, a cessation of the pregnancy ….? As an OBGYN, my first priority is the life of my female patient. Please don’t tie my hands.”?

Read the letter: